RESUMEN

Due to the transfer of the angular spectrum of the pump beam to the two-photon state in spontaneous parametric downconversion, the generated twin photons are entangled in their spatial degrees of freedom. This spatial entanglement can be observed through correlation measurements in any set of modes in which one may choose to perform measurements. Choosing, e.g., a Hermite-Gaussian (HG) set of spatial modes as a basis, one can observe correlations present in their spatial degrees of freedom. In addition, these modes can be used as alphabets for quantum communication. For global quantum communication purposes, we derive an analytic expression for two-photon detection probability in terms of HG modes, taking into account the effects of the turbulent atmosphere. Our result is more general as it accounts for the propagation of both signal and idler photons through the atmosphere, as opposed to other works considering one photon's propagation in vacuum. We show that while the restrictions on both the parity and order of the downconverted HG fields no longer hold, due to the crosstalk between modes when propagating in the atmosphere, the crosstalk is not uniform: there are more robust modes that tend to keep the photons in them. These modes can be employed in order to increase the fidelity of quantum communication.

RESUMEN

Memoryless time evolutions are ubiquitous in nature but often correspond to a resolution-induced approximation, i.e. there are correlations in time whose effects are undetectable. Recent advances in the dynamical control of small quantum systems provide the ideal scenario to probe some of these effects. Here we experimentally demonstrate the precise induction of memory effects on the evolution of a quantum coin (qubit) by correlations engineered in its environment. In particular, we design a collisional model in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and precisely control the strength of the effects by changing the degree of correlation in the environment and its time of interaction with the qubit. We also show how these effects can be hidden by the limited resolution of the measurements performed on the qubit. The experiment reinforces NMR as a test bed for the study of open quantum systems and the simulation of their classical counterparts.

RESUMEN

Higher order correlation beams, that is, two-photon beams obtained from the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion pumped by Hermite-Gauss or Laguerre-Gauss beams of any order, can be used to encode information in many modes, opening the possibility of quantum communication with large alphabets. In this paper we calculate, analytically, the fourth-order correlation function for the Hermite-Gauss and Laguerre-Gauss coherent and partially coherent correlation beams propagating through a strong turbulent medium. We show that fourth-order correlation functions for correlation beams have, under certain conditions, expressions similar to those of intensities of classical beams and are degraded by turbulence in a similar way as the classical beams. Our results can be useful in establishing limits for the use of two-photon beams in quantum communications with larger alphabets under atmospheric turbulence.

RESUMEN

Non-Markovianity has recently attracted large interest due to significant advances in its characterization and its exploitation for quantum information processing. However, up to now, only non-Markovian regimes featuring environment to system backflow of information (strong non-Markovianity) have been experimentally simulated. In this work, using an all-optical setup we simulate and observe the so-called weak non-Markovian dynamics. Through full process tomography, we experimentally demonstrate that the dynamics of a qubit can be non-Markovian despite an always increasing correlation between the system and its environment which, in our case, denotes no information backflow. We also show the transition from the weak to the strong regime by changing a single parameter in the environmental state, leading us to a better understanding of the fundamental features of non-Markovianity.

RESUMEN

In this work we show that using two-photon correlation imaging and a suitably prepared source of photon pairs, antisymmetric optical aberrations of an imaging system can be cancelled out. The conditions under which this cancellation takes place are discussed.

RESUMEN

The state of spatially correlated down-converted photons is usually treated as a two-mode Gaussian entangled state. While intuitively this seems to be reasonable, it is known that new structures in the spatial distributions of these photons can be observed when the phase-matching conditions are properly taken into account. Here, we study how the variances of the near- and far-field conditional probabilities are affected by the phase-matching functions, and we analyze the role of the EPR-criterion regarding the non-Gaussianity and entanglement detection of the spatial two-photon state of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). Then we introduce a statistical measure, based on the negentropy of the joint distributions at the near- and far-field planes, which allows for the quantification of the non-Gaussianity of this state. This measure of non-Gaussianity requires only the measurement of the diagonal covariance sub-matrices, and will be relevant for new applications of the spatial correlation of SPDC in CV quantum information processing.

RESUMEN

The spatial correlation between down-converted photons allows for non-local spatial filtering when two-photon coincidences are registered. This allows one to non-locally control the visibility of interference fringes, to observe ghost images and interference patterns, and to "retrieve" a coherent quantum image from an incoherent field distribution. We show theoretically that non-local spatial filtering can lead to counter-intuitive effects when the pump beam is no longer given by a Gaussian profile. Namely, increased non-local filtering can actually decrease the visibility of interference fringes, contrary to what has been observed so far. We explain this behavior through the transverse spatial parity entanglement of the down-converted photons.

RESUMEN

We demonstrate experimentally how orbital-angular-momentum entanglement of two photons evolves under the influence of atmospheric turbulence. Experimental results are in excellent agreement with our theoretical model, which combines the formalism of two-photon coincidence detection with a Kolmogorov description of atmospheric turbulence. We express the robustness to turbulence in terms of the dimensionality of the measured correlations. This dimensionality is surprisingly robust: scaling up our system to real-life dimensions, a horizontal propagation distance of 2 km seems viable.

Asunto(s)

Atmósfera/química , Monitoreo del Ambiente/métodos , Modelos Teóricos , Refractometría/métodos , Simulación por Computador , Luz , Fotones , Dispersión de Radiación

RESUMEN

We analyze an apparent disagreement between simulational and experimental results in a recent work of Puentes et al. [Opt. Lett., 30(23):3216, 2005] on the universality in depolarized light scattering. We show that the distribution of experimental points in the allowed region of the index of depolarization versus entropy diagram is ultimately determined by the statistics on the Mueller matrices, rather than on the eigenvalues of an associated Hermitian matrix. We propose a reasonable criterion that distinguishes the class of physically admissible from the physically realizable scattering media. This strategy yields further insight into the depolarization properties of media.

Asunto(s)

Modelos Estadísticos , Refractometría/métodos , Simulación por Computador , Entropía , Luz , Dispersión de Radiación

RESUMEN

We report an experiment to generate entangled states of D-dimensional quantum systems, qudits, by using transverse spatial correlations of two parametric down-converted photons. Apertures with D slits in the arms of the twin photons define the qudit space. By manipulating the pump beam correctly, the twin photons will pass only by symmetrically opposite slits, generating entangled states between these different paths. Experimental results for qudits with D = 4 and 8 are shown. We demonstrate that the generated states are entangled states.

RESUMEN

Controlling the pump beam transverse profile in multimode Hong-Ou-Mandel interference, we generate a "localized" two-photon singlet state, in which both photons propagate in the same beam. This type of multiphoton singlet beam may be useful in quantum communication to avoid decoherence. We show that although the photons are part of the same beam, they are never in the same plane-wave mode, which is characterized by spatial antibunching behavior in the plane normal to the propagation direction.

RESUMEN

Phase objects can become visible by slightly defocusing an optical microscope, a technique seldom used as a useful tool. We revisited the theory of defocusing and apply it to our optical microscope with optics corrected at infinity. In our approximation, we obtain that the image contrast is proportional to the two-dimensional (2D) Laplacian of the phase difference introduced by the phase object. If the index of refraction of the phase object is uniform the image obtained from defocusing microscopy is the image of curvature (Laplacian of the local thickness) of the phase object, while standard phase-contrast microscopy gives information about the thickness of the object. We made artificial phase objects and measured image contrasts with defocusing microscopy. Measured contrasts are in excellent agreement with our theoretical model. We use defocusing microscopy to study curvature fluctuations (ruffles) on the surface of macrophages (cell of the innate immune system), and try to correlate mechanical properties of macrophage surface and phagocytosis. We observe large coherent propagating structures: Their shape, speed, density are measured and curvature energy estimated. Inhomogeneities of cytoskeleton refractive index, curvature modulations due to thermal fluctuations and/or periodic changes in cytoskeleton-membrane interactions cause random fluctuations in image contrast. From the temporal and spatial contrast correlation functions, we obtain the decay time and correlation length of such fluctuations that are related to their size and the viscoelastic properties of the cytoskeleton. In order to associate the dynamics of cytoskeleton with the process of phagocytosis, we use an optical tweezers to grab a zymosan particle and put it into contact with the macrophage. We then measure the time for a single phagocytosis event. We add the drug cytochalasin D that depolymerizes the cytoskeleton F-actin network: It inhibits the large propagating coherent fluctuations on the cell surface, increases the relaxation time of cytoskeleton fluctuations, and increases the phagocytosis time. Our results suggest that the methods developed in this work can be of utility to assess the importance of cytoskeleton motility in the dynamics of cellular processes such as phagocytosis exhibited by macrophages.

Asunto(s)

Membrana Celular/patología , Microscopía/métodos , Actinas/metabolismo , Animales , Membrana Celular/metabolismo , Citocalasina D/farmacología , Citoesqueleto/metabolismo , Vidrio , Procesamiento de Imagen Asistido por Computador , Macrófagos/metabolismo , Ratones , Ratones Endogámicos C57BL , Microscopía de Contraste de Fase/métodos , Microscopía por Video , Modelos Estadísticos , Distribución Normal , Fagocitosis , Factores de Tiempo , Zimosan/farmacología

RESUMEN

We consider multimode two-photon interference at a beam splitter by photons created by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The resulting interference pattern is shown to depend upon the transverse spatial symmetry of the pump beam. In an experiment, we employ the first-order Hermite-Gaussian modes in order to show that, by manipulating the pump beam, one can control the resulting two-photon interference behavior. We expect these results to play an important role in the engineering of quantum states of light for use in quantum information processing and quantum imaging.

RESUMEN

We report an interference experiment that shows transverse spatial antibunching of photons. Using collinear parametric down-conversion in a Young-type fourth-order interference setup, we show interference patterns that violate classical Schwarz inequality and should not exist at all in a classical description.

RESUMEN

We have measured the probability distribution of the phase difference Phi(2) - Phi(1) between two signal fields produced by parametric downconversion from two cascaded nonlinear crystals for several different values of the degree of mutual coherence. The experimental results are compared with theory, based on our operational approach to phase operators for quantum fields, and good agreement is obtained. These results are of interest because they constitute what we believe is the first experimental test of our phase theory for nonclassical states of light.

RESUMEN

The coherence area is measured in a simple Young's experiment using parametric downconversion light produced in a nonlinear crystal (LiIO(3)) pumped by a continuous argon-ion laser. The normalized mutual intensity or degree of coherence is obtained from the intensity distribution interference patterns and compared with a standard theory in which the light source behaves as a surface with infinitesimal uncorrelated emitters.